Snare drum

ABSTRACT

A Snare drum has a body shell made up of two complementary halfshells with integrally moulded half lugs which, in the assembled condition, provide a set of spaced hollow lugs around the body shell for attachment of the counter-hoops of the drum.

D United States Patent 1191 1111 3,865,003 Della-Porta Feb. 11, 1975 SNARE DRUM [56] References Cited [75] Inventor: Clifford Anthony Della-Porta, UNITED STATES PATENTS Rothley, Leicestershire, 754,101 3/1904 Stromberg 84/4ll England 859,036 7/1907 Baggs 84/412 73 A 1 Th P D l.752,568 4/l930 Meyer.... Sslgnee f ggl g C0 3,0l9,685 2/l962 Davis g 3,674,911 7/l972 Phillips et al. 84/4ll [22] Filed: Nov. 13, 1973 Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson [21] Appl' 415396 Assistant Examiner-John F. Gonzales [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Attorney, Agenl, or Firm-Larson, Taylor & Hmds Dec. 10, 1972 Great Bn'tain 55666 [57] ABSTRACT A Snare drum has a body shell made up of two complementary half-shells with integrally moulded half [52] U.S. Cl. 84/411 lugs which, in the assembled condition provide a Set [51] Int. Cl. 610d 13/02 of Spaced hollow lugs around the body for [58] Field of Search 84/41 l, 415, 412, 413

tachment of the counter-hoops of the drum.

4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures SNARE DRUM Standard forms of snare drum have a cylindrical open-ended body shell, flesh hoops around the upper and lower ends of the shell holding the margins of the heads stretched over these ends, counter hoops disposed around the flesh-hoops and connected by an annular array of bolts which draw the counter-hoops together to engage the flesh hoops and tighten the heads, snares anchored at one end to the shell and disposed over one of the heads, and a snare strainer unit which is mounted at the opposite side of the shell and connected to the other end of the snares.

Conventionally the shell is of metal strip which, in the production of the drum has to be rolled into cylindrical shape and closed (an intricate operation to ensure exactitude) and then plated and polished in further operations. The various fittings, e.g. the mounting of the snare strainer, also require individual fabrication, assembly, plating and polishing, so that many auxiliary and separate activities are involved in the production of a finished drum.

It has been an object of the present invention to devise a form of snare drum which is less expensive in terms of material cost, and of fabricating and assembly time and labour.

To these ends, we now present a snare drum of the general kind described above in which the body shell is made as two cylindrical half-shells each with a number of half-lugs (representing assembly fittings) spaced around the periphery of the body and complementing the half-lugs on the other half shell to form in the assembled condition a plurality of hollow lugs around the periphery of the shell, each of these half-shells, with its half-lugs, being made as an integral unit being moulded in one piece, e.g. of aluminium, zinc, or any alloy or of a suitable plastic composition.

The assembled body will thus have a plurality of outwardly projecting hollow lugs (each composed of two registering half-lugs) which can serve for the attachment of the counter-hoops of the drum, in either or both cases through a tensioning bolt. This will have the merit that the two counter-hoops are anchored to the drum body midway of the depth of the latter, thereby providing a rigid, firm and stably tensioned structure.

One of the composite lugs could provide the mounting for the snare strainer mechanism, thus optionally avoiding the use of a special and separate fitting as in conventional constructions.

In general, then, it will be observed that the novel arrangements immediately confers the advantages of a substantial saving in costs of material, in fabrication time, in the elimination of ancillary fittings, and in assembly.

There are other attributes. Thus the half lugs can be shaped so that each hollow composite lug can receive, and mask, an elongated but which will orientate the shank of a fastening bolt engaged with one of the coun ter-hoops. The fastening nuts around the drum will thereby provide a self-aligning arrangement for the counterhoops and drum heads concerned.

Each of the composite lugs will, moreover, advantageously be designed to incorporate two such selfaligning units, side-by-side but one inverted relatively to the other, to serve two fastening bolts, one from the top counterhoops and the other from the bottom hoop.

One form of drum made in accordance with the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a cross-section through the drum, FIG. 2 is a detail elevation taken in the direction of arrow II of FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3 is a detail elevation taken on the line III of FIG. 1.

The body shell of the drum is generally designated 1 and this is composed of two cylindrical half shells 2 and 3 butted together. The castings 2 and 3 have integral therewith a set of half-lugs 4 and 5 respectively which, when the half shells are brought together in appropriate register, define a plurality, say six or eight, of hollow lugs 6 around the periphery of the shell body. Each half lug is apertured for the passage therethrough of a fastening bolt 7. There are two of these bolts 7, one carried by the top counterhoop l2 and the other by the bottom counterhoop 13 (see below).

Each bolt 7 is screwed at its outer end part into a sleeve 8 which passes into the lug and is flanged at 9 to position it. The sleeve 8 is retained within the lug by a lock nut 10.

The counterhoops 12 and 13 serve in the usual way to engage the flesh hoops 15 and to anchor and stretch the batter head 16 over the top of the shell and the snare head 17 over the lower end.

The drum snares are designated 18 and at one end are looped by the snare cord 19 through the shell to anchor them to he drum at this end. The snare cords 20 at the opposite end of the drum are attached to the yoke 21 of the strainer mechanism which is generally indicated at 22. This mechanism is mounted on a composite snare strainer lug 23 in two parts cast integrally with the half shells 2 and 3. In the illustrated this lug is of a variant construction from the lugs 6, but arrangements are feasible in which the same form of lug construction could be employed.

The mechanism 22 basically comprises a stem 24 with a head 25 which engages the yoke 21, and a sleeve 26 into which this stem is screwed. Sleeve 26 has a tightening head 27, and rotatable on the sleeve 26 is a tightening lever 28 which co-operates with a cam 20 forming part of, or secured within, lug 23. The tightening or relaxing of the snares is performed by a simple turning of lever 28 through a quarter of a revolution.

It will be observed that the body of the drum described can be made with minimum expense from two metal castings and requires only relatively simple assembly means which, in any event are self-aligning.

I claim:

1. In a drum comprising a cylindrical body shell, batter heads disposed over the ends of this shell, flesh hoops, at the ends of the shell engaging the margins of said heads, counter hoops disposed around said flesh hoops, snares anchored at one end to the shell and disposed over one of the heads, and a snare strainer unit mounted at the opposite side of the shell and connected to the other end of the snares, the improvement in which the body shell is composed of two abutting cylindrical half-shells each with a number of hollow halflugs spaced around the periphery of the body and complementing and abutting the hollow half-lugs of the other half-shell and forming, in the assembled condition of the drum shell, a plurality of hollow lugs around the periphery ofthe shell, each ofthese half-shells, with its half-lugs, being made as an integral unit moulded in one piece, each hollow half-lug having a threaded female member located therein and circumferentially offset from the threaded female member of the complementary hollow half-lug of the other half-shell, a plurality of bolts arranged annularly around the exterior of the body shell and connecting the counter-hoop of one half-shell to the hollow half-lugs of the other half shell, each bolt passing through its associated counterhoop and into threaded engagement with the threaded female member in its associated half-lug of the other halfshell.

2. A snare drum according to claim 1, in which said snare strainer mechanism is mounted on one of the holriphery of the sleeve inside the hollow half-lug. 

1. In a drum comprising a cylindrical body shell, batter heads disposed over the ends of this shell, flesh hoops, at the ends of the shell engaging the margins of said heads, counter hoops disposed around said flesh hoops, snares anchored at one end to the shell and disposed over one of the heads, and a snare strainer unit mounted at the opposite side of the shell and connected to the other end of the snares, the improvement in which the body shell is composed of two abutting cylindrical half-shells each with a number of hollow half-lugs spaced around the periphery of the body and complementing and abutting the hollow half-lugs of the other half-shell and forming, in the assembled condition of the drum shell, a plurality of hollow lugs around the periphery of the shell, each of these half-shells, with its half-lugs, being made as an integral unit moulded in one piece, each hollow half-lug having a threaded female member located therein and circumferentially offset from the threaded female member of the complementary hollow half-lug of the other half-shell, a plurality of bolts arranged annularly around the exterior of the body shell and connecting the counter-hoop of one half-shell to the hollow half-lugs of the other half shell, each bolt passing through its associated counterhoop and into threaded engagement with the threaded female member in its associated half-lug of tHe other half-shell.
 2. A snare drum according to claim 1, in which said snare strainer mechanism is mounted on one of the hollow lugs.
 3. A snare drum according to claim 1 wherein each bolt passes freely through an opening in the hollow half-lug of its associated half-shell.
 4. A snare drum as claimed in claim 3 wherein each threaded female member comprises a flanged sleeve passing through an opening in its hollow half-lug such that the flange is disposed outside the hallow half-lug and the sleeve is disposed within the hollow half-lug, the sleeve having a threaded bore and a threaded outer periphery, and a locknut screwed onto the threaded periphery of the sleeve inside the hollow half-lug. 